Copper Age Ditched Enclosures in Central Iberia

Díaz-del-Río, Pedro

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00204.x

Cited by 34 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Its digging and backfilling would have entailed the movement of huge quantities of sediment, involving large numbers of people. The depositional histories tracked in the ceramic analysis of the fill of ‘Pithouse 013’ can be clearly understood from this standpoint as a cumulative aggregate or palimpsest containing time-averaged residues (Lucas 2012, 106–9), created by seasonal, small-scale, and intermittent social gatherings of dispersed groups (Díaz-del-Río 2001, 249; 2004; Mercer & Healy 2008, 755; Beadsmoore et al 2010, 129). During such festive commensal episodes, people would have interacted, consumed foodstuff, and interchanged animals, items, or know-how in different crafts through hands-on training.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in many regions of Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe, inner Iberia is rich in such monumental features, with over 50 of them known to date (eg, Díaz-del-Río 2004; Delibes de Castro et al 2010). Indeed, El Ventorro and more recently excavated examples (Díaz-del-Río 2004; Liesau et al 2008; Delibes de Castro et al 2010) share features with other ditch-digging traditions elsewhere in Europe (eg, Thomas 1999, 38–45; Darvill & Thomas 2001; Varndell & Topping 2002) such as their location on rounded locally prominent hills in lowland settings (Fig. 1C) and especially their filling with ‘domestic’ debris and deposits that stood out in terms of their quality or quantity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Revisiting the Chalcolithic site of El Ventorro (Madrid, Spain). Ceramic Re-fitting and Taphonomy

González

Chapman

2014

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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Monumental ditches and Bell Beakers are two key phenomena in later prehistoric Europe involved in the study of El Ventorro, near Madrid. In this article, we discuss and develop an analytical protocol for a thorough characterisation of the patterns of breakage, abrasion, and representation of ceramics. The procedure is tested with a large ceramic sample from ‘Pithouse 013’, an unusually rich context which challenges stereotypical accounts of the domestic sphere, feasting, and prestige goods deposition. This sunken feature was filled with a heterogeneous mixture of recently broken remains and secondary residues, and is reinterpreted here as a ditch segment instead of everyday fossilised occupation surfaces. The paper sheds important new light on depositional practices, the social biographies of Beaker pottery, and the infilling of ditched enclosures. It also allows the assessment of the potential of this integrated re-fitting and taphonomic strategy to illuminate poorly understood aspects of pottery in a range of time–place contexts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the Chalcolithic site of El Ventorro (Madrid, Spain). Ceramic Re-fitting and Taphonomy

González

Chapman

2014

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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“…As regards interpretation, traditional categories like that of ‘fortified settlement’ were uncritically applied, and debates developed in the absence of regular references to alternative views discussed elsewhere. The situation only began to change in the first decade of the 21st century (eg, Delibes 2001, 300–1; Márquez-Romero 2001; 2003; 2006; 2007; Márquez-Romero & Fernández 2002; Díaz-del-Río 2003; 2004; Rojo et al . 2008; Orozco 2009; Delibes et al .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unsuspected Circles. On the Late Recognition of Southern Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ditched Enclosures

Jiménez-Jáimez¹

2015

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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Neolithic ditched enclosures appear to be widely distributed across Central and Western Europe, and from the Mediterranean area to Scandinavia. They have been known in areas of Europe for a long time, but particularly in the last 25 years studies on British, French, Central European, and Scandinavian ditched enclosures have flourished. In line with this, a number of international meetings occurred in the last three decades. In southern Iberia, by contrast, ditched enclosures only began to be known in the 1970s, and even then methodological deficiencies and lack of funding hampered their characterisation. As a consequence of this, Iberian Neolithic and Copper Age ditched enclosures were largely unknown outside Portugal and Spain. They were not represented in any of the international meetings above, nor included in any of the syntheses made about the topic. Not only that, for decades, Spanish and Portuguese archaeologists were not aware of the potential analogies themselves, and the research that was being carried out elsewhere in Europe had almost no influence on the way ditched enclosures were surveyed, excavated, and interpreted in the peninsula. The main objective of this article is to advance the recognition of the southern Iberian evidence by other European researchers and the integration of the Iberian conversation into the general discussion. The focus will be on how these sites have been studied by several generations of Iberian archaeologists, in an attempt to explain why it has taken Portuguese and Spanish archaeologists so long to realise that Iberian enclosures should not be understood in isolation.

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“…Despite the invisibility of class or particular social groupings within the collective burials during the LN/CA, the structures themselves may indicate that hierarchical forms of social differentiation existed. The construction of labor-intensive funerary architecture and fortifications suggests that organized labor was an entrenched part of society by this time period (Díaz-del-Río 2004). While communally organized labor pools are possible, under most socio-political systems labor is organized around a hierarchical structure (Arnold 1995).…”

Section: Late Neolithic and Copper Age (3500-2000 Bc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marked in life and death

Waterman¹

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This dissertation research is a bioarchaeological investigation of Late Neolithic through Early Bronze Age (3600-1800 BC) burial populations from the Portuguese Estremadura. In this project macroscopic and isotopic analyses of skeletal and dental materials are used to gather information pertaining to diet, health status, and inter-lifetime mobility patterns for individuals interred at different burials within a small geographic area with the goal of evaluating the level of social differentiation in the region. The archaeological record for the transition between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in southwestern Portugal demonstrates clear evidence of the rise of a sociallycomplex, non-state society. During the Early Bronze Age, however, this region underwent a period of social 'devolution' which cumulated in widespread settlement abandonment. To date, it is unclear to what extent sociopolitical or environmental factors contributed to this social collapse. This study seeks to expand our knowledge of social differentiation in the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age of the Estremadura region of Portugal and provide insight into social structure during the emergence and collapse of early complex societies in Iberia.The results of this study found that there were statistically significant differences in dietary, mobility and demographic patterns between burials that suggest socially distinct populations were interred at different sites. In particular, one burial site, Cova da Moura, diverged significantly from the other sampled burial populations. However, based upon the data presented here, it was not possible to tie these biological markers of differentiation to particular aspects of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age social organization. Therefore, while this study successfully identified differences between burial populations, at this time, it is not possibly to relate these to particular hierarchical structures. It is suggested that aspects of burial practices in the region confound biologically-based investigations of social organization in a similar way that they have impeded researchers' abilities to identify elite versus non-elite individuals through grave goods alone. Nonetheless, despite these obstacles, this work provides strong evidence of population heterogeneity in the region, and has implications for our understanding of the evolution of complex societies in the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere.Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor

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Copper Age Ditched Enclosures in Central Iberia

Cited by 34 publications

References 7 publications

Revisiting the Chalcolithic site of El Ventorro (Madrid, Spain). Ceramic Re-fitting and Taphonomy

Revisiting the Chalcolithic site of El Ventorro (Madrid, Spain). Ceramic Re-fitting and Taphonomy

The Unsuspected Circles. On the Late Recognition of Southern Iberian Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ditched Enclosures

Marked in life and death

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